A Preview of this Sunday's U21 SW 'B' Football Championship

This Sunday sees our Under 21 Footballers in Championship action against near neighbours, St. Colums, in Wolfe Tone Park, Bantry with throw-in at 2:30p.m.

The Following is an extract from a preview piece written by Philip O'Regan that appears on this weeks Southern Star:

""On Sunday at 2.30 in Bantry there’s a battle of neighbours’ children when Glengarriff take on St Colum’s in the ‘B’ championship. This promises to be a real dinger of a local derby and will surely draw a fine crowd. The clubs share borders and the majority of these lads would have played on the same teams at one of the two Bantry Secondary Schools at some stage and a number of the Glengarriff panel would play hurling with St Colum’s, namely Matthew O’Shea and James Horgan, so this is not just another championship game for both clubs, it goes deeper than that.

Glengarriff have enjoyed quite a bit of success at U21 level in the past three years, albeit operating in the ‘C’ grade. In 2008 they were SW runners-up and in 2009 and 2010 won the SW U21 ‘C’ football championship. There’s no doubt that with players like Matthew O’Shea, a Cork minor last year, Captain James Horgan, Shaun O’Sullivan and Ciaran McElhinney they should make the transition up to the ‘B’ grade without any difficulty and are well equipped to earn the bragging rights over their neighbours on this occasion.""

Now for a Glengarriff view point;

That was a pretty big write up for a team that has never played at this level before, if I didn't know better I'd go to the bookies first thing in the morning and put ever cent I own down on Glengarriff to go out and beat St. Colums by more than double scores and go on to win the Championship outright! But, 'I Do Know Better', so lets take a minute & come back down to Earth and take a more realistic look at our chances "to earn bragging rights" this Sunday!

Firstly, four players, no matter how skilful or talented, won't win you a football match on their own! In today’s modern game, it takes the full panel, usually 20+ players, training and playing together, week in & week out. But in a small rural club like ours this just isn't feasibly. With players spread the length of the country, some as far away as Sligo & Galway and ranging in age from 16 to 21, there’s allot of work that needs to get done in very small windows of time to suit everyone and even at that you'll always be missing one or two.

Having lost six of last years 'C' Championship winning panel, four now over age & two deciding not to play this year, it puts allot of pressure on the five new players, coming up from last years Under 16 panel, to fill in at key positions. Sunday will also be the first time that many of this team will have played in a 15 aside competition and this could be telling, as the space they were used to, will no longer be there!

Make no mistake, this Sunday will be the biggest test to date for this panel of players and allot will be decided by which way the breaks and "Dirty Ball" go. A certain amount of luck will be required, along with one or two of the fringe players having the game of their lives, could decide the outcome.

Having said all that; There is no more dedicated or capable group of lads, that I would send into battle this Sunday "to earn bragging rights" than, THIS YEARS GLENGARRIFF UNDER 21 FOOTBALL TEAM, watch out St. Colums, YES WE CAN!!!